palmer worm

British  

noun

1. the hairy black and white caterpillar of the goldtail moth

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Etymology

Origin of palmer worm

C16: originally applied to various destructive caterpillars of migratory habits

Example Sentences

I have smitten you with blasting and mildew: when your gardens and your vineyards and your fig-trees and your olive-trees increased, the palmer worm devoured them....

From The Gospel Day Or, the Light of Christianity by Orr, Charles Ebert

What the palmer worm had left, the locust had eaten; what the locust had left, the cankerworm had eaten; and what the cankerworm had left, the caterpillar had eaten. 

From The Good News of God by Kingsley, Charles

The birds whistle, but they die too; the rose blooms, but it is eaten in the heart by the palmer worm; the sun shines, but there is a shade at his back.

From Wilson's Tales of the Borders and of Scotland, Volume I Historical, Traditionary, and Imaginative by Various